This document describes results from the OHI 2018 global assessment.
Overview of global scores
This section describes global patterns in index and goal scores. The overall global score was 70.08.
Map of index scores
Map png files can be downloaded here.
(Maps of goal scores are described below)
Average global performance of the 10 goals: 
Distribution of scores
The median index score was 66.89. The highest score was 91 for Howland Island and Baker Island, and the lowest score was 41 for Ivory Coast.
The following histogram describes the distribution of overall index scores:

The regions with index scores of 80 or greater are:
| Howland Island and Baker Island |
90.94 |
| Heard and McDonald Islands |
90.69 |
| Kerguelen Islands |
90.61 |
| Pitcairn |
85.01 |
| Macquarie Island |
84.65 |
| South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands |
84.24 |
| Norfolk Island |
83.89 |
| Christmas Island |
83.80 |
| New Caledonia |
82.70 |
| Jarvis Island |
81.79 |
| Madeira |
81.76 |
| Aruba |
81.60 |
| Phoenix Islands (Kiribati) |
81.27 |
| Germany |
80.99 |
| Jan Mayen |
80.96 |
| Wake Island |
80.60 |
| New Zealand |
80.49 |
| Cocos Islands |
80.36 |
| Palmyra Atoll |
80.09 |
The regions with index scores of 50 or less are:
| Guinea |
49.96 |
| Eritrea |
49.60 |
| Bosnia and Herzegovina |
49.45 |
| Guinea Bissau |
49.44 |
| Syria |
48.46 |
| Somalia |
48.45 |
| Sierra Leone |
48.13 |
| Democratic Republic of the Congo |
46.94 |
| Lebanon |
46.35 |
| Nicaragua |
44.85 |
| Libya |
42.89 |
| Ivory Coast |
41.29 |
This interactive table describes the index and goal scores for the regions in 2018 (and here’s a link to a color coded table, and a csv file can also be downloaded).
Change over time
A color-coded table of 6 year trends is available here (and a csv file).
These values are calculated using a linear model of scores for each region/goal over the past 7 years. Positive values indicate potentially increasing scores during the past 7 years and negative values indicate potentially decreasing scores.
NOTE: Currently, these data include the livelihoods and economies goal but this trends should probably be calculated without this goal.
Trends of regional index scores
The global average decreased by an average of -0.25 points per year. There was a good deal of variation in trend among regions and goals.
(Maps of goal scores are described below)
The following histogram describes the distribution of trend (e.g., change in score per year) in index scores:

The 10 regions with the largest increases in index scores are:
Georgia, Pitcairn, Mauritania, Solomon Islands, Bangladesh, Samoa, Myanmar, Tongo, Yemen, and the Philippines
| Georgia |
1.84 |
| Pitcairn |
1.35 |
| Mauritania |
1.24 |
| Solomon Islands |
1.22 |
| Bangladesh |
1.22 |
| Samoa |
1.21 |
| Myanmar |
1.18 |
| Tonga |
1.16 |
| Yemen |
1.08 |
| Philippines |
0.94 |
The 10 regions with the largest decreases in index scores are:
Lithuania, Sint Maarten, Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island, Trinidad and Tobago, Syria, Marshall Islands, Mayotte, Equatorial Guinea, Estonia, Eritrea
| 211 |
Lithuania |
-1.68 |
| 212 |
Sint Maarten |
-1.74 |
| 213 |
Amsterdam Island and Saint Paul Island |
-1.81 |
| 214 |
Trinidad and Tobago |
-2.10 |
| 215 |
Syria |
-2.12 |
| 216 |
Marshall Islands |
-2.16 |
| 217 |
Mayotte |
-2.19 |
| 218 |
Equatorial Guinea |
-2.24 |
| 219 |
Estonia |
-2.76 |
| 220 |
Eritrea |
-3.05 |
Exploring change over time of goals
The following table provides the global scores (eez area weighted average of region scores) for the Index and goals/subgoals.
(NOTE: Livelihood and economy goals are not included here)
Plot View
Table View
| Index |
71.11 |
71.46 |
71.44 |
70.83 |
70.39 |
70.10 |
70.08 |
| Artisanal opportunities |
76.75 |
77.09 |
77.36 |
77.45 |
77.55 |
77.66 |
77.87 |
| Species condition (subgoal) |
89.77 |
89.75 |
89.77 |
89.79 |
89.87 |
89.89 |
89.94 |
| Biodiversity |
90.21 |
90.22 |
90.47 |
90.55 |
90.64 |
90.53 |
90.63 |
| Habitat (subgoal) |
90.63 |
90.68 |
91.17 |
91.31 |
91.39 |
91.17 |
91.32 |
| Coastal protection |
88.16 |
87.71 |
87.68 |
87.57 |
87.16 |
86.40 |
85.97 |
| Carbon storage |
79.16 |
79.09 |
79.12 |
79.12 |
79.16 |
79.18 |
79.19 |
| Clean water |
70.75 |
70.41 |
70.53 |
70.80 |
70.86 |
70.98 |
71.06 |
| Fisheries (subgoal) |
56.88 |
58.45 |
58.29 |
55.31 |
52.72 |
51.05 |
50.60 |
| Food provision |
55.97 |
57.33 |
57.16 |
54.47 |
51.92 |
50.61 |
50.36 |
| Mariculture (subgoal) |
18.67 |
19.00 |
19.60 |
20.58 |
21.28 |
21.44 |
21.91 |
| Iconic species (subgoal) |
66.67 |
67.79 |
67.88 |
67.89 |
66.89 |
66.77 |
66.84 |
| Sense of place |
62.18 |
62.70 |
63.07 |
63.19 |
62.94 |
63.77 |
63.82 |
| Lasting special places (subgoal) |
57.68 |
57.61 |
58.26 |
58.50 |
58.99 |
60.76 |
60.80 |
| Natural products |
52.18 |
52.12 |
51.85 |
50.35 |
48.97 |
46.14 |
45.43 |
| Tourism & recreation |
53.64 |
52.18 |
51.27 |
48.90 |
48.70 |
49.26 |
49.58 |
The following is a very preliminary analysis of how the global scores changed over time. Global index scores decreased by an average -0.25 points per year (although, not significant with this rough analysis), with 142 regions having decreasing trends and 79 having increasing trends.
Declining scores
- Fisheries declined by nearly 1.4 points per year on average, which is a greater decline rate than it was last year. Previous years before that had increasing trends (p = 0.004, 148 regions with decreasing trend and 71 with increasing trend)
- Natural products declined by about 1.25 points per year on average, which is a greater rate of decline than last year (p = 0.0010, 90 regions with decreasing trend and 48 with increasing). However, there is a very large variation in trends for this goal (i.e., large standard deviation 7.44), indicating that some regions have had relatively large increases.
- Tourism and recreation declined by about 0.74 points per year on average, which is a slower rate of decline than it was last year (p = 0.018, 111 regions with decreasing trend and 68 with increasing). However, this goal had a fairly large amount of variation in trend results.
- Coastal protection declined by 0.35 points per year on average, which is greater than it was last year (p = 0.0008, 83 regions with decreasing trend and 27 with increasing). However, there is a fairly large amount of variation suggesting a few regions may be driving this trend, due to seaice loss.
- Iconic species (sub-goal) declined by 0.09 points per year on average (p = 0.46, 136 countries with decreasing trends, 76 increasing). Small variation
Improving scores
- Carbon storage increased by 0.01 per year on average (p = 0.11, 43 regions with increasing trend and 54 decreasing)
- Species condition (sub-goal) increased by 0.03 per year on average (p = 0.002, 110 countries with increasing trend and 74 countries decreasing)
- Biodiversity increased by 0.07 per year on average (p = 0.01, 111 countries with increasing trend and 82 countries decreasing)
- Livelihoods increased by 0.07 per year on average (p = 0.11, 75 countries with increasing trend and 69 countries decreasing)
- Clean waters increased by 0.09 per year on average, in contrast to decline by 0.11 points last year (p = 0.03, 101 regions with increasing trend and 107 with decreasing)
- Habitat (sub-goal) increased by 0.12 per year on average (p = 0.03, 79 regions with increasing trend and 77 with decreasing)
- Artisanal opportunities scores increased by 0.17 points per year on average, about the same as last year (p = 0.0003, 181 regions with increasing trend and 31 with decreasing)
- Sense of place increased by 0.25 points per year on average (p = 0.003, 91 regions with increasing trend and 121 with decreasing)
- Livelihoods and economies increased by 0.38 points per year on average (p = 0.14, 133 regions with increasing trend and 42 with decreasing)
- Mariculture (sub-goal) increased by 0.58 points per year on average (p = 0.00005, 52 regions with increasing trend and 44 with decreasing)
- Lasting special places scores increased by an average of 0.59 points per year, at a significantly greater rate of change than last year (p = 0.001, 66 regions with increasing trend and 45 with decreasing)
- Economies increased by 0.70 points per year on average (p = 0.14, 116 regions with increasing trend and 21 with decreasing)
| Fisheries (subgoal) |
-1.40 |
0.0042789 |
71 |
148 |
-1.06 |
2.01 |
| Food provision |
-1.27 |
0.0043006 |
76 |
143 |
-1.00 |
2.00 |
| Natural products |
-1.25 |
0.0008809 |
48 |
90 |
-2.15 |
7.44 |
| Tourism & recreation |
-0.74 |
0.0180107 |
68 |
111 |
-0.47 |
2.25 |
| Coastal protection |
-0.35 |
0.0008195 |
27 |
83 |
-0.41 |
2.23 |
| Index |
-0.25 |
0.0069813 |
79 |
141 |
-0.28 |
0.76 |
| Iconic species (subgoal) |
-0.09 |
0.4556476 |
76 |
136 |
-0.09 |
0.34 |
| Carbon storage |
0.01 |
0.1094596 |
43 |
54 |
-0.01 |
0.08 |
| Species condition (subgoal) |
0.03 |
0.0020106 |
110 |
74 |
0.02 |
0.08 |
| Biodiversity |
0.07 |
0.0092038 |
111 |
82 |
0.01 |
0.44 |
| Livelihoods |
0.07 |
0.1135875 |
75 |
69 |
-0.05 |
1.09 |
| Clean water |
0.09 |
0.0322971 |
101 |
107 |
-0.03 |
0.86 |
| Habitat (subgoal) |
0.12 |
0.0275651 |
79 |
77 |
0.00 |
0.87 |
| Artisanal opportunities |
0.17 |
0.0002681 |
181 |
31 |
0.19 |
0.38 |
| Sense of place |
0.25 |
0.0029183 |
91 |
121 |
0.11 |
0.95 |
| Livelihoods & economies |
0.38 |
0.1362157 |
133 |
42 |
0.25 |
0.94 |
| Mariculture (subgoal) |
0.58 |
0.0000485 |
52 |
44 |
0.10 |
1.31 |
| Lasting special places (subgoal) |
0.59 |
0.0014393 |
66 |
45 |
0.31 |
1.89 |
| Economies |
0.70 |
0.1392107 |
116 |
21 |
0.55 |
1.26 |
Comparing assessment years
The following is a comparison of the global status scores generated for the 2017 scenario by this year’s assessment vs. last year’s assessment.
If the models and source data remains the same, these scores should be exactly the same. Differences indicate changes in methods or source data.
These changes do not reflect changes in actual system health!
Global averages
We made a few changes to some goals, such as the addition of edible seaweed species to Mariculture and removal of edible seaweed species from Natural Products. Furthermore we changed the data source used for Fisheries from SAUP to Watson.
Changes in scores for the 2017 scenario were..
The largest changes were for CW (-2.57) and MAR (-6.33). The change in mariculture reflects additions to source data, mentioned above.
Other regions changed by less than 2 points.
| Artisanal opportunities |
73.80 |
73.93 |
-0.13 |
| Species condition (subgoal) |
90.37 |
90.37 |
0.00 |
| Biodiversity |
89.59 |
89.35 |
0.24 |
| Habitat (subgoal) |
88.82 |
88.33 |
0.49 |
| Coastal protection |
84.77 |
84.77 |
0.00 |
| Carbon storage |
78.42 |
78.42 |
0.00 |
| Clean water |
70.88 |
73.45 |
-2.57 |
| Economies |
87.65 |
87.65 |
0.00 |
| Livelihoods & economies |
82.46 |
82.46 |
0.00 |
| Livelihoods |
77.28 |
77.28 |
0.00 |
| Fisheries (subgoal) |
49.16 |
48.34 |
0.82 |
| Food provision |
48.84 |
49.13 |
-0.29 |
| Mariculture (subgoal) |
19.60 |
25.93 |
-6.33 |
| Iconic species (subgoal) |
62.89 |
62.13 |
0.76 |
| Sense of place |
60.80 |
59.45 |
1.35 |
| Lasting special places (subgoal) |
58.70 |
56.77 |
1.93 |
| Natural products |
42.68 |
42.16 |
0.52 |
| Tourism & recreation |
48.02 |
46.51 |
1.51 |
Light blue is status for the 2017 assessment, and the dark blue is the status for the 2018 assessment.

Regional data
This color-coded table compares how the 2017 scenario index scores for each region/goal changed from the 2017 to 2018 assessment.
Because these are index scores, changes reflect updates to pressure and resilience scores as well as status.
The following interactive plot provides an overview of how the 2017 scenario scores changed between the 2017 and 2018 assessment for all goals and dimensions.
A closer look at goals
This section takes a closer look at each goal/subgoal.
Additional checks
Plot years of data for each data layer….
Table with spark plots for each region showing trends
Julie has plotting suggestion to check out
Add # of iconic species in list for each country
Comparing trend and average index scores
To obtain a more complete picture of which regions are doing well and which are doing poorly we compared the average index scores (averaged over 2012 to 2018) and the trends for each region.
Of most concern are regions that have poor scores and declining trends: Eritrea, Somalia, Ivory Coast, Nicaragua, and Lebanon.
The following is an interactive plot (region names are visible when hovering over the points) showing the relationship between average index scores and trend. The horizontal line represents the 0 trend and the vertical line is the average of the average index scores.